Following up on Apple’s discovered iPhone 4G prototype: Apple wants it back.

Per Macworld UK, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam has posted an official letter he received from Apple requesting that the device be returned immediately.

Gizmodo believes that such official communication proves the device is real. However, it should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that the device is the next iPhone and could simply be a prototype.

The device was reportedly found by an anonymous bar-goer at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer garden in Redwood City, near San Francisco. The phone was discovered on a barstool at midnight on Thursday, March 19th.

The person who found the phone asked around the bar to see if anyone had lost an iPhone 3GS (the phone had a case on it that made it look like a 3GS), but nobody claimed it. The person then unlocked the phone and found the Facebook page of Apple software engineer, Gray Powell, still signed in. The person decided to try to return it in the morning.

Gizmodo says that the person woke up to find the phone dead thanks to Apple’s MobileMe service, which allows users to wipe their stolen iPhones of all data, remotely. The person then noticed the phone looked different from other iPhones (for instance, the unit’s front-facing camera) and managed to remove the “disguise” case. Upon discovering that this iPhone was not like any other iPhone out there, this person promptly forgot their promise to find Gray Powell and return the phone, and started selling to the highest bidder.

Nick Denton, the head of Gawker Media and publisher of Gizmodo, tweeted earlier Monday, “Yes, we’re proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story!” and “Does Gizmodo pay for exclusives? Too right!”

Per AOL’s Daily Finance, web site Engadget was offered the chance to bid after the site published the first photos of the prototype, but declined. Engadget editor in chief Joshua Topolsky says he doesn’t believe in checkbook journalism as “it encourages awful behavior in tipsters.”

And I hope Gizmodo and the “anonymous” bar-goer receive their “reward” from the California criminal justice system. The “anonymous” seller peddled what he knew was not his (possession and sale of lost/stolen property) and Gizmodo knowingly “bought” said lost/stolen property.